This blog displays scenic photos taken from around Grand Marais, MI. Photos of rockhounding and nature adventures are also posted. Information is included about the Gitche Gumee Agate and History Museum and other scientific subjects. For more information about the museum and our unique mineral art, books, DVDs, and Online rockhounding classes please go to www.agatelady.com.

About Me

After more than a million miles of corporate travel, I moved to my family's home town of Grand Marais, MI in 1994. I now operate the Gitche Gumee Agate and History Museum as well as earn a living as a mineral artist and writer/designer. I hope that this blog will help me share my adventures and art with family, friends, museum patrons, and customers. You can learn more about the museum at www.agatelady.com.

Friday, October 30, 2015

As usual while on vacation with my sister, Diana, we both took lots of photos. It is one of the things we love doing with each other. I have two more sets of photos to post, including the pictures below.

Jug rock is located on the edge of town. Jug Rock is a natural geological formation located in the valley of the East Fork of the White River. It is composed of sandstone, and is the largest free-standing table rock formation in the United States east of the Mississippi River. It is part of the Mansfield formation, laid down in the Pennsylvanian geological epoch, roughly 325 to 286 million years ago. Erosion along fracture lines separated it from a nearby cliff.

Next we stopped at Overlook Park....

Then we drove southeast of town to Hindostan Falls. The town of Hindostan was founded at the falls of the East Fork of the White River in 1816. The settlement sat along the original stagecoach route and was one of the only roads in the new state of Indiana, which had been a territory until 1816. By 1820, it was the largest community in what was then still Daviess County
and the most promising town on the White River.

By 1820, about 1,200 people lived in the new town, making it one of
the largest settlements in frontier Indiana. Many lived on houseboats on
the White River. The surge of population toward new land on the Indiana
and Illinois frontiers, as well as Hindostan's location along the
stagecoach route, meant that it was constantly open to carriers of
disease. Disease eventually destroyed the town. An epidemic of yellow fever or cholera
broke out in Hindostan in 1820. Water- and insect-borne illnesses were
the bane of many towns on the Midwestern frontier. Situated along rivers
for the purpose of easy transportation, towns were often built on flood
plains that bred insects in huge numbers. The ferocity of the epidemic
that struck Hindostan, however, caused the population to succumb to
disease or abandon the area. The falls is shown below.

Our next destination was a covered bridge, located northwest of Shoals.

Just up river from the covered bridge we stopped at a damn....

We walked down a stairway to the beach....

Then we walked onto the cement structure located at the damn. The photo below shows a view looking straight down....

On the way back to Shoals, we stopped at a small park that used to be the Trinity Springs resort.

The house we rented was located next to a church. We had to drive through a hole in a hedge to reach our very remote rental.

There was a porch off the second story. The photo below shows the hill located next to the house.

The pictures below show Diana and I playing with the house and the antiques that were located all over the house.